College Football 2015: OSU, The Three-Headed Dragon

[Ken Stone]

Nebraska is going into the season with a new coach, so who knows what is on the docket. We have a couple of studs on the DLine, a dynamic all purpose WR, and an experienced QB. Also have a stacked secondary. All that but no one you look at and think "1st round NFL pick lock". Hell, probably not even a first day NFL pick.

[Ramsay B.]

Dalvin Cook, FSU RB, has been suspended after being accused of punching a woman several times last month. What the fuck is with these guys? They are making it near impossible to like this fucking team lately. Unreal.

[sperry]

Dalvin Cook, FSU RB, has been suspended after being accused of punching a woman several times last month. What the fuck is with these guys? They are making it near impossible to like this fucking team lately. Unreal.

Don't think Jimbo will be around for long. They're running up a list of violent crimes so long that it's impossible to ignore. Multiple players accused of rapes and violent assaults against women over the past couple years.

[Ixodes]

So Braxton Miller lets the cat out of the bag about preparing for wide receiver.  We'll see how it plays out but I think that is the best choice given his shoulder and the quarterback competition.  He's got the talent and skills to probably pull that off. 

 

I am so excited about this season.  I got tickets to the Maryland game.  While it won't be a powerhouse game, it'll be my wife and oldest son's first time at the Horseshoe.  We got a tailgate party lined up and everything.   

[Ded As Ned]

5 more weeks!

[Ferrum Aeternum]

5 more weeks!

 

It's finally starting to feel like the upcoming season is a real thing that's going to happen, not just some far-off heat and haze induced mirage. Fall camps start soon. Obviously I can't wait.  :thumbsup:   

[S John]

 

It's finally starting to feel like the upcoming season is a real thing that's going to happen, not just some far-off heat and haze induced mirage. Fall camps start soon. Obviously I can't wait.  :thumbsup:   

 

Same, I have speculated until I can speculate no more.  Just have to wait and see how the games play out.  I think the WVU game I will be attending this year will be @ TCU.  A large contingent of my family is invading Fort Worth so I think I'll drive up too, get drunk, and do some yelling.  I may try to catch a Longhorns game since they are here in town.  I've got my eye on the Cal game for that but it'll still be blaring heat Sept. 19, so that may be the deciding factor in whether or not I decide to go.

 

On a related note there is a THIRTY page thread over on one of the WVU boards about our opening game with Georgia Southern.  In fairness it is that long because a couple of their fans made accounts and expressed confidence that they might beat us so it's been back and forth all summer.  Still... Thirty. Pages.  I think everyone is ready.   :lol:

[Ferrum Aeternum]

 

 I think the WVU game I will be attending this year will be @ TCU.  A large contingent of my family is invading Fort Worth so I think I'll drive up too, get drunk, and do some yelling. 

 

Good luck! That game in Morgantown last year was crazy; I thought y'all had them. 

 

Not sure how many Ole Miss games I'll attend in person this year. The "road" game at Memphis is a given. My dad also wants to go to a conference game this year after taking last season off with some health issues so it looks like we're gonna hit the A&M game in October. 

 

Our schedule setup this year isn't too bad (easy non-conference, Vandy & Florida from the East) but we open the season playing 10 games in a row before the first open date. I wonder how that's going to play out by the time we get to November. 

 

Big question marks for this year's team will again be the O-line and QB. Everyone's back on the line, but I'm not sure yet whether that's a good thing. QB will likely be Jim Kelly's punk nephew Chad, who I wasn't happy about us signing but thus far seems to be behaving himself. We'll see how he reacts when the pressure starts cranking up. Whoever wins the QB job will have a stable of receivers as good as any in the nation, including Laquon Treadwell who's apparently back to 100% after his devastating injury last fall in the Auburn game.  

 

The defense promises to be elite. A couple of stars in the secondary are gone but nearly everyone else is back. LB is a little thin but every other position is deep, talented and experienced.

 

I'll wait til closer to the season before I give a full blown prediction, but my initial blush is a similar year to last year, something like 8-4 or 9-3. If Kelly (or whoever) gets protection and emerges as a difference maker, we might could hit 10 wins.

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

SJohn - Let me know if make it up to the TCU game, I will try to get over there wearing my most obnoxious purple gear.

So, TCU is in a bit of a weird position right now. We have a TON of recruiting momentum - we have five or six Scout 300 players committed for this class, compared to 1 last season, and we just got a commitment from the #1 Dual-Threat QB in the 2017 class, the first five-star of Patterson's tenure and the highest-rated recruit to commit. Plus Kenny Hill has apparently cleaned up his act and is running our scout team offense while sitting his transfer year.

Boykin is the consensus pre-season Heisman favorite. We return all but 2 players from our offensive two-deep and didn't have any coaching turnover. Plus we have some fantastic young players who will be coming into the rotation.

But ... we lose our best defensive lineman, our badass linebackers AND their top backup, our #1 corner, and 2 of 3 starting safeties. The guys we have coming in are good, but unproven.

All together, we should have a good season, but we probably won't repeat last year's success. Baylor has more pieces to put together a playoff run *if* their QB can produce (and I bet he will).

Still, should be a great season, and we are well-prepared for the future with our recruiting, but I think pre-season expectations are too high. I could be wrong - Patterson has a way of churning out defensive players faster than expected, and our schedule is favorable for developing young players - but I'm keeping perspective.

[sperry]

First season in 16 years that Oklahoma really doesn't look to have much chance of competing for the conference championship. Stoops got lazy, made some terrible nepotism-induced assistant coaching hires, and recruiting has fallen off. There just isn't the talent there that there usually is.  Would love to be wrong, but this looks like a 9-3 season at best.

[lokisnow]

I may be wrong, but I think usc will struggle to get to six wins this season, our only home conference win will probably be utah. There are just so few upperclassmen ( this year is the worst year of sanctions in that respect), but at least by the 2018 season the sanctions will be over.

[Michael Seswatha Jordan]

So word is on all the WVU sites is William Crest will be on the field, even if he's not the starting QB. Which he still could be, as Holgs said Howard has not locked the starting job up yet. Crest is drawing comparisons to TCU's Boykin. Crest has worked out at nearly every skilled position, and is 2nd on the depth chart at PR. This kid is a phenomenal athlete and apparently a team player. He said he,s willing to play anywhere so long as he's helping the team. Gotta love a guy like that is on your team.

[Guest]

I may be wrong, but I think usc will struggle to get to six wins this season, our only home conference win will probably be utah. There are just so few upperclassmen ( this year is the worst year of sanctions in that respect), but at least by the 2018 season the sanctions will be over.

 

Wait, aren't the sanctions done this year? 

 

Even if that's not the case, I would bet my life that USC will win more than six games. 

[lokisnow]

 
Wait, aren't the sanctions done this year? 
 
Even if that's not the case, I would bet my life that USC will win more than six games. 

Not done until we've had five full years after the last year of fifteen.

This season we have 73ish players, nearly 50 are underclassmen.

[sperry]

To get fired up about CFB season, create your own rivalry: http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2015/6/9/8754121/create-your-own-rivalry

[S John]

To get fired up about CFB season, create your own rivalry: http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2015/6/9/8754121/create-your-own-rivalry

 

I'm pretty partial to the Oregon vs. San Jose State match up in the Orchard Shitstorm.  :lol:

 

God, I really wish there was a rivalry that utilized the word 'shitstorm'

[sperry]

 

I'm pretty partial to the Oregon vs. San Jose State match up in the Orchard Shitstorm.  :lol:

 

God, I really wish there was a rivalry that utilized the word 'shitstorm'

 

 

The NFL's fine, but it doesn't have the spirit of Old Dominion and Kansas State in the Drainage Ditch Shitstorm.

[S John]

SJohn - Let me know if make it up to the TCU game, I will try to get over there wearing my most obnoxious purple gear.
 

 

Will do! (somehow missed this earlier)

 

Man, I just stumbled across this WVU hype video today and I'm officially pumped.  That D is gonna be salty.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9bdqhr3eq0

 

Only 30 days to go.  

[Ded As Ned]

While I'm excited for the season, I'm not as optimistic as I was last year.  We have the 4 "should-be" wins (I hesitate to call them cupcakes, cuz one can never be too sure as a Long-Suffering-UK-Football-Fan), 2 toss-ups, and 2-3 we could maybe win one time out of 3 or 4.  Unlike last year, we'll get into the meat of SEC play early this season.  2nd and 3rd games against SoCar & Florida will determine how the rest of the season goes. The bright side is 8 home games.  Dunno that it will make much difference in the end

 

SJ, what were your thoughts on Shannon Dawson while he was at WVU?  I'm curious to see how he pans out as our OC and calling his own plays 100%

[S John]

SJ, what were your thoughts on Shannon Dawson while he was at WVU?  I'm curious to see how he pans out as our OC and calling his own plays 100%

 

Its hard to say for sure because Holgorsen has always been very involved in the offense and has always called all the offensive plays since he's been at WVU.

 

But here is one way to look at it:  Dawson was receivers coach in 2011 and 2012 (as well as OC from 2012-2014).  During that time we had Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey.  Under the previous staff, I don't think we were fully utilizing those weapons, but both players blossomed under the new staff.  Both of those guys are in the NFL now, and both would have been coached under Dawson.  Some of their success is undoubtedly due to the Holgo-raid being brought in, but certainly Dawson didn't do anything to hurt those guys.  May also be worth noting that Kevin White and Mario Alford would have been well acquainted with Dawson.  So that's 4 NFL receivers - three of which (White, Bailey, and Alford) needed the development and coaching up that happened over their time at WVU in order to make it into the NFL.  

 

Dawsons final two years he was OC / QB coach.   2013 was a low point in WVU history.  We lost Geno, Bailey, and Tavon to the NFL and they were the only thing keeping a young team with a lack of depth afloat (and just barely) during 2012, our first year in the Big 12.  We had no answer at QB in 2013 - and this is not entirely the fault of Dawson or even Holgorsen, it was just a lack of overall depth due mostly to external circumstances that the program has since recovered from.   We had a young recruit in Ford Childress who didn't pan out at all and isn't with the program anymore and Clint Trickett the FSU transfer who did not know the system well and is undersized.  So 2013 was bad.  

 

But the following year Trickett was a completely different player.  He ended up getting hurt later in the season via multiple concussions, but before he was injured Trickett was perhaps the single biggest improvement between yr 1 and yr 2 that I've ever seen at WVU.  I had ZERO expectations that Trickett would ever be worth a damn at WVU, but there were times in 2014 when he was excellent.  The development was amazing and I think Dawson should get the bulk of the credit for that.

 

Perhaps it's also telling that rather than replace Dawson as a QB coach and O-Coordinator, Holgorsen has taken on those duties himself.  So I can't necessarily speak to any one thing and give Dawson full credit for it, but I have seen this staff really do a stellar job developing offensive skill players and Dawson was a major part of that.